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Month March 2017

The heading is simple, and sensible. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, or Rotten Tyrant Erdogan as I would like to call him, is a controversial Turkish politician and incumbent President of Turkey, a full blown Islamist, an idiot and a turncoat who has now been blocked by both The Netherlands and Germany for his impractical political views and his so called Islamization of a great country like Turkey is putting Turkey in harm’s way.

It is pretty evident that he is NOT the architect of Turkey’s economic miracle, and the Islamist rooted AKP Party, to which Erdogan belongs to, has launched scathing attacks on Turkey’s secular constitution and values, which can compromise the safety and sanity of Turkey.

A graphical depiction of Erdoganism, a threat to Turkey’s character.

Erdogan rose from Councillor to Prime Minister through a controversial decision of the Turkish Supreme Court which allowed Abdullah Gul to become President. With Turkey reeling from 1.6 million Liras per 1 U.S Dollar, his finance minister Kemal Unatikan (late) took an I.M.F bailout package that helped eliminate 6 zeros from the Turkish Lira meaning 1.6 Lira per U.S Dollar for three years upto 2008. In the year 2010, the Turkish Lira was 1.3 Lira per U.S Dollar, and the conversion of Gecekondus (Slums) into decent Apartment complexes as well as new investments across an array of industries rose his popularity. Due to new found economic wealth, Turks were in the mood for compromising secularism but now its turned worse.

Erdogan went to maximum lengths to ban social media in Turkey, especially Twitter.

The Turkish people are now divided and the recent coup attempt sparked fears over the loss of power of the Turkish Army. Many analysts accused Erdogan of fooling the Turkish nation using false coup attempts, falsehood and bribing army officers. Last year, 11 terrorist attacks took place in Turkey, a bomb blast at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport, A blast in Izmir and two blasts in Ankara perpetrated by the ISIS raised concerns over Turkey’s security. With the army unable to do much in Syria and tensions with Russia, Syria, Iran, The Netherlands and Germany rising where Erdogan was taking out rallies in his favor causing the European Union to ban him, Turkey is now in increased isolation.

Another Graphical Depiction of Erdoganism. Erdogan must fall

#ErdoganMustFall at all costs. With rising number of terrorist attacks, with the Turkish army being attacked by Erdogan and his Islamist goons (especially incumbent Prime Minister Binali Yildrim, who literally has no clue about his position), Erdogan is increasingly becoming authoritarian and the Turkish people are behaving like sheep. Moreover, the business climate in Turkey has taken an uncertain turn with the Turkish Lira falling against Euro, U.S Dollar, Pound Sterling and Swiss Franc. Moreover, with Turks concerned about personal safety, internet censorship has taken an authoritarian stand as well Thanks to Erdogan, Turkey’s most rotten ruler in its modern day history.

The failed coup attempt of 2016 was a hoax, a lie and a drama orchestrated by Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself

May God Almighty save Turkey

Erdogan made matters even worse by shutting down family planning centers, saying it was the order of our Prophet to raise more descendants. Na’uzu billah, this is actually blasphemy and Erdogan himself is a fundamentalist who is actually turning Turkey into an Islamist garbage dump. Moreover, rights of women and children are at stake in Turkey whereas number of tourists visiting Turkey have fallen down and now, more Turks are thinking of leaving rather than returning.

Erdogan’s increasing lust for power and authority will move Turkey towards oblivion and isolation.

Erdogan must fall, his Islamist ideas are ruining the society and economy of Turkey and furthermore, he is NOT a saint. he is an alleged blasphemer and is not even a proper Muslim. His idea of reconciling Islam and Democracy is resulting in authoritarian power and if he tries to compromise the secular ideology of Turkey then I will shoot him.

I hope the Turkish army rises up and overthrows him. I hope he and the entire AKP party are executed for what they have done to Turkey.

Despite the new office plans, Grab said it will not expand into India. The move is a bid to suck up new talent to fuel its rivalry with Uber in Southeast Asia, a region of over 600 million consumers where the market for on-demand rides is tipped to grow from $2.5 billion in 2015 to $13.1 billion in 2025, according to a report co-authored by Google.

“These two [new] locations are growing in terms of local talent and they understand what it is like to live in these parts of the world,” Grab co-founder Hooi Ling Tan told TechCrunch in an interview. “There are a tonne of parallels between India and Southeast Asia, especially around payments.”

Tan said Grab is looking to hire around 200 staff in Bangalore, where it will focus on developing its payments service, over the next two years. The other two offices will be focused on more local innovation. In Jakarta, Grab wants to hire 150 people while in Vietnam it will initially start with a team of 25.

Grab has a total of 2,000 staff, Tan said, but it plans to add 800 more developers to its six R&D offices. Currently there are around 20 in Seattle, where Grab just moved into a new office to house plans to expand to 60 people. The Beijing office, she added, has 40-50 employees, with the remainder of the rest mostly based in Singapore.

Today, Grab claims 710,000 drivers across 39 cities in six countries in Southeast Asia. It said it has seen 36 million downloads of its mobile apps. There’s precious little data to compare marketshare in Southeast Asia, but anecdotally Uber and Grab seem to be fairly well matched across the region. Indicators suggest that Go-Jek is ahead of both in Indonesia, however. That’s significant because Indonesia is the region’s largest economy and its top ride-sharing market, too, according to the Google report.

For most of the time, we all thought that Australia is going to be the new economic frontier. However, such is not so as the Australian economy is showing worrisome signs that it is going to face a tailspin which will put it in the direction of both a recession and an economic meltdown. The dependence on services and the removal of manufacturing, coupled with the massive outsourcing which the U.S.A once did in the mid 2000’s is now putting Australia in a precarious position, on which the Australians are in denial and are somewhat defiant that such is not so. Despite the fact that manufacturing has still maintained presence in New South Wales, The shutdowns of the Toyota, Ford and Holden automotive plants as well as Mitsubishi’s plant shutdown in 2008 has hurt the Australian economy far more than anyone can imagine. Also, relying on imports from Thailand, China, India, U.S.A and other nations is definitely going to strain Australia’s finances and also cause political instability in Australia.

The theories and concepts of business process outsourcing and engineering in the U.S.A have been quashed, with thanks to Donald Trump’s protectionist and nationalist policies that have not only rebounded and restored American manufacturing but have also taken suit in Europe as well as Africa and certain Asian nations. India is benefiting from a strong manufacturing base for both domestic and international consumption which has made its economic base stronger. Despite China having billions in its treasury, excessive mining has damaged its landscape and rivers, where carcinogenic metals have leaked into river waters thus producing polluted fish, sinkholes, cancers in villagers and cancers in agricultural produce. Moreover, with dozens of Chinese export goods like vegetables, meat, rice and other things banned and blacklisted by most O.E.C.D nations, China is officially in deep trouble.

When it comes to Thailand, they have benefited from a previously strong base and are benefiting from a rising auto industry that earns billions and even trillions! Mitsubishi, Ford and Toyota were given entries but on the basis of joint ventures, with shared research and development and controlled industrial expansion which will now give Thailand an even improved base for starting its own companies in automotive industry (Vehicles, Parts, Equipment) as well as shipbuilding and other manufacturing sectors, and that too with less pollution. Being environmentally and economically responsible, Thailand has invested in all sectors of the economy, from education and healthcare to tourism. With the Australian Dollar falling, its time for Australia to realize its mistake and fix its struggling economy.

The following graphs will help indicate Australia’s so called economic miracle and how it is tumbling down

Number of quarters the aforementioned economies endured without a recession since 1991

Australia’s commodity exports (Mineral and Fuel) as well as prices of Iron Ore and Coal per metric ton

The Australian Net Disposable Income has risen

So did the wage rates til some time but the hourly pay has fallen, and is further decreasing to concerning extent

Taking housing prices as a multiple of Annual Income, Australia has the most expensive housing market in the Anglosphere, the Southern Hemisphere and in the world as well as O.E.C.D nations

Whats even more concerning is that the Australian household debt levels are rising each passing day, and are not stopping! They are continuously rising which indicate Australia will default on its debt in the future

Australia is now relying on exporting services to save the balance of payments, which is certainly not possible. For that, Australia must restore manufacturing and export manufactured goods.

The problem lies in the policies of the Australian Government. The ambigious statuses of Rio Tinto mining corporation and BHP Billiton should raise alarms. They label themselves as multinationals, but with 2 headquarters (i.e. Melbourne and London for both) they both should be paying taxes in Australia and the United Kingdom but sadly, they just evaded Australian taxes whilst earning millions and billions off commodity exploration, mining, refining and export of minerals and even petroleum. Even if they are paying taxes in Australia, how come the British economy is ahead of the Australian economy? even after Brexit?

In 1991, Australia emerged from a recession, unemployment peaking at 11.1% and price of Iron Ore languishing at USD$15 per metric ton. John Howard, the leader of the consecutive party becomes Prime Minister in 1996 and decides to privatize state companies and reduce government spending resulting in strong export growth, stable Australian Dollar, good value of earnings coming from exports of both minerals and goods and manufacturing sector receiving good strength and investment. In the year 2001, Billiton plc of the United Kingdom agreed to merge with BHP of Australia, resulting in merger of two of the world’s largest iron ore producers. Two years later, China’s economy grows at an annual rate of 10 percent, giving a golden opportunity for BHP Billiton to earn billions from the export and sale of Iron Ore to China and Chinese businesses & Corporations, thereby making Australia a commodity strongman. 4 years later, in 2007, Kevin Rudd, a former Mandarin speaking diplomat who spent his formative years in poverty apologized to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders for the way they were treated and promised closer relations with People’s Republic of China, which then give Australian businesses and corporations, leverages for outsourcing business processes to China and other nations in Asia.

However, a year later, the Global Financial Crisis appears, risking thousands of jobs and businesses, sending commodity prices spiraling downwards and BHP Billiton deciding not to acquire Rio Tinto thus ending BHP Billiton’s 18 month pursuit. Commodity prices rebounded in the year 2009, with Chevron approving the USD$ 37 billion Gorgon offshore natural gas project resulting in the Australian Dollar achieving parity with the U.S Dollar. In 2011, Iron Ore was priced at USD$190 per metric ton, and mining workers earning more than AUD$ 175,000 annually just for digging, excavating, running drills and transporting the ore. Laid off workers from the manufacturing sector eventually found work as miners in Australia’s booming mining sector. The strong value of the Australian Dollar at that time did not place much emphasis on investing in manufacturing, rather mining giants were enjoying billion dollar earnings from export of Iron Ore, Gold and other commodities to China and other industrial powerhouses of that time. However, in 2012, this scene took an unprecedented U-Turn when Fortescue Metals Group announced cost cuts, lay offs, roll over of company funded barbecues as well as reduction in mining operations which spell the end of the mining boom and the start of the devaluation of the Australian Dollar.

2013 was a worrisome year as Holden’s parent company General Motors announced the ceasing of production in Australia within a few years. Conservative Politician Tony Abbott became Prime Minister while Governor of the Australian Central Bank Glenn Stevens warned against relying too much on mining again and called for restoring manufacturing, citing reasons such as an unprecedented massive economic downturn and default. in 2015, the price of Iron Ore fell down to USD$ 37 per metric ton, which then plummets salaries in mining, leading to Liberal politician Malcolm Turnbull ousting Tony Abbott, with Turnbull promising to diversify the Australian economy. in 2016, economic indicators show Australia entering deflation and Malcolm Turnbull surviving the 2016 elections by a narrow margin, leaving his Government in a fragile position.

Apart from that, with Uber threatening to take over the Australian taxi sector, various municipalities planned on giving AUD$ 125,000 per taxi driver as golden handshake term deposits but that was overturned with massive protests from municipal taxi drivers and economists as well as the general public alike, who argued that not only will this further raise debt levels but also leave thousands unemployed. Furthermore, Uber’s cost mechanisms were revealed to be shady and Uber has been banned in many countries across the globe.

Australia is now earning from Higher education, seeing an influx of many foreign students, Tourism; generating millions from Chinese and other western tourists as well as high end defense and biotech manufacturing; which is facing challenges from high wages and low competitiveness. Furthermore, with the Chinese economy falling into recession, Australia looks more likely to fall into recession, political instability becoming visible and the housing bubble is also more likely to blow, sending housing prices even lower than that of the U.S.A, Canada and Hong Kong.

With Holden now taken over by PSA of France and more likely to be produced outside of Australia, coupled with the shutdown of Ford Australia’s and Toyota’s manufacturing plants in the state of Victoria, the Australian is officially in trouble. Though Aircraft parts are being manufactured in South Australia, the Australian economy is in trouble and now it needs to reorganize itself and bring manufacturing back or else, it will go down as among the worst affected economies ever.